In their podcast conversation, Dr. Bob Maxfield and Dr. Suzanne Klein invite Grayson McKinney to reprise the highlights of his presentation at the “Resetting” Teaching and Learning beyond the pandemic professional development series, sponsored by the Galileo Institute at Oakland University. Grayson reflects on the current challenges in education and proposes a design for teaching that emphasizes deep learning opportunities and increased student engagement, moving beyond the Information Age to the Imagination Age.

Grayson’s leadership is shaped by his commitment to ongoing professional growth. He received a bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University, and both his master’s degree in Educational Studies and his Ed. Specialist degree in School Leadership from Oakland University. His teaching experience includes elementary grades, a multi-age classroom, and Spanish as a second language. Through meeting prominent global educational leaders at conferences, attending virtual webinars, and connecting with people around the world through social networks, Grayson has expanded his expertise and influence.

He credits two presentations for their positive impact on his instruction practice. Troy School District Superintendent, Dr. Richard Machesky, gave an opening school address in which he encouraged risk taking in educational decision making, and challenged staff to consider what they were able to let go of, in order to make room for something more meaningful and impactful for our students. Second, Ron Ritchhart’s presentation on student learning, thinking routines, and learning through inquiry changed Grayson’s pedagogy. A sustained inquiry project is the vehicle through which student learning becomes most relevant and long lasting. Grayson explains that for students to truly learn through the process of the project, they need the chance to play the role of the professional working on an authentic task, typically taken on by an expert, throughout their unit of study.

With an educational reset, Grayson encourages teachers “to be on the lookout for deep learning opportunities that have the potential to work for all students, as well as opportunities for students to show what they know in ways other than on a test or quiz. Deep learning experiences are achieved, not through pace and breath and getting through the content, getting through your curriculum but relevance and depth. It's not about learning loss it's about picking up students where they are and then taking them in the direction that they want to go.”

Grayson views the teaching profession as facing not only the challenge of this pandemic but one of preparing students for an unknown future, one in which we are not even aware of the jobs that may exist by the time they graduate. Grayson quotes David Warlick, "for the first time in history, we are preparing students for a world we cannot clearly describe." Grayson adds a quote by Seth Godin, "Never again is someone going to pay you to give them answers they can look up online, they will only pay you to solve problems that don't yet have answers."

Grayson expresses his enthusiasm for this new type of paradigm for education. “We're calling it the Imagination Age. The Information Age is almost over, and we need to be ready for the changes coming our way and the things that will get kids to re-engage with school. It's imagination, entrepreneurship, and creativity that will be the most valuable assets; the things that can't easily be automated and turned over to artificial intelligence." With all of this knowledge available at our fingertips the compelling question is, what will you do with that information?

George Couros inspired Grayson to “reframe everything we were doing in the classroom around the goal of either inventing new solutions to problems that we identified, or innovating and finding a better way to do something in the classroom, or campaigning to raise awareness and use our learning to make the world a better place. David Geurin argues that while we are preparing our students for a world that we cannot clearly define, there are some essential goalposts that we can aim for. I want to help my students develop those transferable skills that would help them be happy and successful, no matter what their future looks like. Students need to empathize, be engaged citizens, be upstanders not bystanders, and seek justice. We became the “5th-Grade Futurists” and produced our own podcasts.

Grayson summarizes a significant point from his presentation. “There is a difference between schooling and learning. Schooling over the past couple of decades might have been characterized by phrases such as compliance of students, rigid systems and schedules, rote memorization, and narrowly focused topics. I had the liberty of urging leaders in our region to consider the potential pitfalls of getting back to normal, if this is what normal looks like. We're at the precipice of what could be an educational reset or revolution; that things should not simply get back to normal at our earliest convenience. We're now on the brink of moving beyond these models of society and therefore these models of education too.”

Grayson makes a case for a greater role for teacher leaders for the educational reset. "Teachers are experts: they have the schooling, they have the degrees, they have the experience, they have the passion and they have the willingness to share that passion with their students. They are a wellspring of creativity and problem solving that has not been tapped into as much as it could.”

“If decisions are being made at the top of the organization, much like a pyramid, you're only tapping into 5% of the knowledge and creativity that it takes to remake the system, but the system is people. So we need to invert that pyramid and tap into that base of teacher knowledge. We need to be focused on social emotional learning as wraparound services from the schools for families. We need to be sure that Maslow's hierarchy of needs is being met before Bloom's taxonomy of higher order thinking skills. We need to make sure that we're putting the people first and again deciding what can we let go of, not just to let go of it, but in order to focus on these things that we know are more important.”

Grayson reveals that he has written a soon to be published book with his teaching partner Zach Rondot, an Oakland County elementary teacher of the year. “To give you an idea of what it's about, I'll share the subtitle, The Expert Effect: a three part system to break down the walls of your classroom and connect your students to the world. It's a book for teachers in which we share helpful tips, preferred tools, and anecdotes of how we've been able to transform our curriculum and empower students to learn from experts outside the classroom, become experts in their own right through project based learning, and in turn teach others as experts, by connecting them with authentic audiences for their learning.”

Couros, G. (2015). The Innovator's Mindset: Empower Learning, Unleash Talent and Lead a Culture of Creativity, Dave Burgess Consulting Inc.

Geurin, D. (2017). Future Driven: Will Your Students Thrive in an Unpredictable World? , David Geurin.

Godin, S. (2012) https://www.slideshare.net/giorgiotedx/unesco-touch-and-mobile-technologies-for-the-classroom-session-1 slide 20 of 66, March 22, 2012

Ritchhart, R. & Church M. (2020). The Power of Making Thinking Visible, Jossey-Bass.

Warlick, D (2007) Classrooms for the Future Presentation, Landmark Project https://handouts.davidwarlick.com